Prologue

         It is time.

 It wasn’t said, but it was heard and felt. The being who sent out the message was there, but unable to be seen. It was sent to one other, the same type of being but different, weaker. The plan that had been thought of thousands of years ago was being put into action now.

Take another with you, you know which one.

If the being had a corporeal body it would have smiled. It used all its energy to leave the place it was being held, taking one other with it.

1.

         As the cold night wind rushed across his face all he could smell was the rotting flesh of his dead men, the men he couldn’t bury deep enough. He walked into his tent and closed the flap. Using a match he lit some incense, even if it burned all night it wouldn’t mask the smell, nothing could. It was a repugnant smell, the smell of death, rot and unrealized dreams. Looking at his meager belongings made him laugh. He used to live in such luxury and now this. His company had no electricity since it had begun. He and his men had batteries and a few propane tanks but not enough to use them all the time. He had to sleep in an old sleeping bag on a sheep skin rug because those were the quickest things to move if it came to that. In one corner was his trunk, which had his two sets of clothes, one civilian and the other his dress uniform. On the top of his trunk was his survival material and M16A4 with four extra magazines and a steel katana with a 29” blade. Once someone ran out of bullets they had to have something to protect themselves with. On his belt was his army issued knife, along with his M9 handgun.

         He really wasn’t a tall man, not by his family’s standards at least. Being 5”10’, he liked how tall he was. Not really good looking but he had the rough out door look to him. Always wearing boots either civilian or his army issued. Denim jeans were his first choice but he didn’t mind his uniform. He had dusty blonde hair with a nose a little too small and a forehead a little too big. He couldn’t grow a full beard no matter the length of time he let it grow, so he decided clean shaven would be his best choice. Having not shaven for the last three months he had two patches just to the right and left of his nose that were hairless. Brown eyes that his wife said knew exactly how to look when she needed encouragement. He lived in New Mexico, but was born in Texas. He met his wife in DC, at the age of 18 at Fort McNair 24 years ago. They fell in love instantly and were married six months later. Now with three children, her out of the army and him close to retirement this happens. He hoped his eldest son wasn’t going through the same thing he was. His oldest was 22 years old, just graduating from school and joining the army he is a second lieutenant deployed in Russia. His second oldest was still in college; at 19 years old and the top of her freshman class at Boise State University. His youngest son was 15 years old, he didn’t care too much about school lately because of video games but he was smart and would snap out of it sometime.

         The country he had been sent to guard against foreign invasion had been attacked from the inside and gone to hell. Being the company commander and highest ranking United States officer in Tasmania it was his job to protect and to see to the safety of his men and that there trip here was not a one way one. They were sent here to keep Australian’s out of the main city until a peace agreement was settled upon. They were stationed in Devonport, the Gate of Tasmania. No real problems until the 10th day of their assignment. Around 2200 on the 15th of March 2017 they struck. There were about 250 of them at first, coming out of buildings and from the countryside. They were slow but extremely strong, taking multiple shots to put them down. They had overtaken three of his men before they had secured a building to become there position to defend. They set flares and called out to the civilians to get them into the building. He ordered his soldiers to try and use only pistol’s to defend the building because they didn’t bring enough rifle magazines, and the Tasmanian police only carried G17’s. They saved 1/8 of the population, around 2,500. When the morning came there were no enemy bodies or civilian dead, they were just all gone. Having tried to contact HQ in D.C. and getting no response he took matters into his own hands. The captain decided to take the survivors and move to a more defensible position. They took as many vehicles as they could up a mountain road to a secluded hill top, they began parking them in a circle around the hill to establish a perimeter. He ordered his men to go back and get more vehicles, gasoline and food, not knowing how long they were going to be stuck he wanted to be prepared. It was just over a two hour drive from the city to where he chose to make their camp, around a hotel in Cradle Mountain. They used a hotel to put the civilians in and he had his men sleep in tents around it. His men thought they were fighting the living dead, they couldn’t explain how there were no bodies and no drag marks where they knew they had put people down. Some of the more religious soldiers said it was demon possession, captain Todd didn’t know what to believe. 

         That had been three months ago and those people just kept attacking his camp. His men had mostly done pretty well, the perimeter of cars made it hard to get attacked directly by anyone but also hard to get a prisoner to question. They had lost 16 men since they left the city, either out scouting or trying to capture one of the enemies alive. Luckily their attackers didn’t use weapons, just brute force. He was finding it harder and harder to convince himself that he was going to get home alive.

         Captain Todd sat down on his trunk to take off his boots so he could get some sleep. That’s when he heard his first Sergeant, Samuel Defuss, talking outside.

         “No the Captain is not available right now. And even if he was you are not important enough to go in and see him.”

         “May I ask why he is not seeing people at the moment?” It was a man’s voice, it didn’t sound like a young man’s voice, to mature, to rough.

         “He is about to go to sleep, he just went into his tent. The Captain spent the night fighting those things and needs to sleep.”

         “Well if he just went in his tent, and if he is alive at all then your voice has kept him awake.”

         Captain Todd could tell this man wasn’t going to go away, no matter what the Sergeant said to him. Even though he was exhausted he decided he would speak with the man outside.

         “Let him in Sergeant. I am awake enough to talk with him.”                   

         “Are you sure sir?” the Sergeant said in a quite voice, he sounded desperate, like he didn’t want the man to be let into the tent.

         “Yes sergeant. Let him in.”

         “Yes sir!”

         Captain Todd was very surprised to see who walked into his tent. It was a young man who looked to be in his late twenties.  He had dirty blonde hair, almost brown. His eyes were a dark shade of green that looked almost like they could glow. He wore dark blue jeans that had almost no fading to them. He had on grey red and white Nike running shoes, they looked to be size twelve. His shirt was a dark grey with a white Nike logo in the top left. He looked like a normal young man except he held himself with the confidence of someone who had faced his worse demons and won. He looked about 6’1” and Captain Todd couldn’t tell because the shirt was so loose but he thought the man to be in good physical condition because his arms were extremely muscular and toned. His face seemed to be made of stone, every angle perfect with the exception of a light scare running over his right eye going down to the top of his left cheek, and he had no facial hair except his eyebrows. He was carrying four things, two pouches, one on each hip, that were pretty big, and then on his back he had two handles sticking over his shoulders the pommels were dragons on each but one was black with ruby eyes; the other was white with emerald eyes. They were over his right and his left shoulders, the handles were wrapped in leather and went into two silk wraps that almost went down to the ground. Captain Todd could only assume was two extremely large swords that crossed behind his back, he noted that they didn’t have the cross guard of a regular sword and the blades looked to be about four inches thick,  The strange thing to Captain Todd was that he didn’t seem to be carrying anything for protecting himself from a distance. But by looking into the young man’s eyes he could tell he didn’t need it. It was almost like your soul was standing in front of him, that he could tell exactly who you were and everything about you just by looking into your eyes, like he was judging you. It was off putting and frightening, to feel like your deepest secrets this man knew without even asking.

         “May I ask your name?” he hoped the young man would answer and look somewhere else besides into his soul.

         “You can but I don’t think I will tell it to you,” he said that with no hint of sarcasm. “It’s truly not important at this point. The only important thing is that I tell you what I came to say and you listen to me, because it is your last chance of survival.”

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         His tone and lack of facial expression made Captain Todd wish he hadn’t let this man into his tent, that this man had never come into their camp at all.

         “Ohh so you think because you survived out there by yourself that whatever you say will be treated like the bible and be followed automatically. Sorry kid but you’re greatly mistaken.”

         “That is enough First Sergeant, this is my company and I will decide who I believe we should listen to.” He knew he had to say that so the stranger didn’t think he had no control over his men. He felt bad about it; Defuss was a good soldier, one of the best he had ever served with. But this didn’t feel like nothing, he had a feeling that this young man knew things he shouldn’t and wouldn’t help them if he was disrespected. “I am sorry for his outburst; we have been under a lot of stress lately.”

         “I understand completely, he is upset because the plan he had to win failed, because all of his ideas have gotten his men killed, he is threatened by me and the fact that I am here to do what he could not.”

         The look on Sergeant Defuss’s face was all the confirmation the Captain needed. He could tell the young man had hit the nail on the head. The Sergeant’s face sunk, he started rubbing his hands together and was looking towards the floor. Captain Todd had never seen him like this; he couldn’t believe that the Sergeant felt so much pressure, it was his job to get everyone to safety he should be the one ashamed of what this man was saying.

         “I am tired of wasting my time, if you don’t want to hear what I have to tell you then I will let you die and be on my way.”

         “Please,” the Captain sounded almost desperate, a plea that said to the visitor that he was ready to hear what he needed to be told. “We need some kind of help here, we can’t hold out forever. Anything you can give us information wise would be greatly appreciated.”

         “I’m glad to hear that. I knew you would be a reasonable man, now listen carefully as I will only tell you this once. I came here of my own free will to assess the situation in this country. I am part of no organization and no one will be coming behind me to help you. If I am correct you are the last uncontrolled humans on this island.”

         “Wait,” Sergeant Defuss interrupted. “What do you mean uncontrolled humans? Are those things zombies like the men have been saying?”

         “If you would have waited I would have gotten to that, but no they are not zombies, they still live but not like you would believe, I’m not sure yet exactly what they are but the dead risen they are not.”

         First Sergeant Defuss let out an audible sigh at that statement. He had been telling his men the same thing for the past three months and he was glad to hear he was right. “So how can we stop them?”

         “You can’t, no matter how many you kill there will always be more. The one you have to kill you wouldn’t be able to. That is why I am here, because I know how to end the threat. Enough about this country though, we should be talking about your own, America is under attack as well. Not as many as here are doing the attacking but there are still enough to cause damage. They aren’t as strong there but they are still destroying cities. My plan is to get you and your men home, so you can protect your loved ones.”

         “We can’t just leave these people behind, even if you are right. It’s our duty to protect them!” Sergeant Defuss was looking angry. It was his job to keep everyone of the civilians alive and he took his job very seriously.

         “Would you please stop interrupting me before I have finished what I am going to say?” He looked to the Sergeant not with anger but as a parent would look to a child they were teaching a lesson to. “You are all dead if you stay here, and so are all the civilians you are trying to protect. Your best bet is to get everyone out of this country, and that includes the locals you have with you.”

         “Are you saying you know how we can leave and get home; that you can get everyone here including the civilians to safety?” Captain Todd’s voice was shaky; he wanted to believe this stranger, to have hope that he could get his men home.

         “I am saying that I can show you the way to get home, I will not be there nor will I be helping you besides pointing you towards your escape. Those creatures will be back again and soon, they want to end this, not because they fear they are losing numbers but because they want to move on to a bigger fight.”

         “How do you know all of this? Were you working with them and now you’ve had a change of conscious? We shouldn’t believe anything he says sir, we can’t trust him. He is most likely trying to deceive us.”

         “I know all of this because I can feel it happening, I can feel the will of their leader and hear his thoughts. If you all don’t leave soon you are going to die.”

         “You can feel their thoughts? Sir this guy is a freak we should throw him out of the camp at once and continue as we were before.”

         “Captain,” He looked into the Captains eyes then, like he was ripping out his soul. “You know what I’m saying is true, those creatures attacking you are not the worst of your problems. They are very minor compared to what will come against you. I don’t even know if I can protect myself, you need to get everyone out of here, and do it now!”

         “I do believe you young man, but how can it be done? Everyone here is scared for their life. We can barely hold our perimeter let alone move all these people across an ocean.”

         “I secured a ship when I arrived. If you can get to it you will be able to get home to safety. You just have to watch out for the others that will be chasing you.”

         “What others? We will be driving those vehicles outside; the things that have been attacking us are slow, what else is out there?” The Sergeant had a scared look on his face.

         “There are creatures out there from your worst nightmares; things that make what you’re facing now seem like kittens and butterflies. They are faster than any car you have, and hundreds of times stronger than you could ever hope to be. They could tear the top of your vehicle off and kill everyone inside before you heard them.”

         “What the hell are you talking about? There is nothing like that in existen...”

         Before he could finish what he was saying the young man was behind him with one of his weapons out. It was up against the Sergeants throat. “I can move just as fast as they can. Do you believe me now Sergeant?”

         Captain Todd had never seen anyone move like that, although he really hadn’t seen him move at all. The man had shown no sign he was going to move, no muscle tightening, no twitch in his hands or feet. One second he was there and the next he was three feet away behind his Sergeant with a blade to his neck. The blade was something the Captain Todd would have thought to be from a video game, not a real weapon. It was like a pair of brass knuckles but it had two sharp blades coming out each side of his hand. Each blade was about eight inches long and curved in towards each other. They were sharpened on each side, like they were meant to slash and stab. There was a metal part that went over his knuckles that the Captain guessed was to protect him from other blades when he blocked. The design that he could see was two dragons entwined together going over his knuckles and about three inches up the blades to hold them in place. They were both a bright silver color with a gem in each their eyes. They were the perfect close quarter’s weapons. They could block anything that was thrown towards them and strike in anyway.

         “Now that you have seen how fast I can move,” He said this while walking back to where he was standing. His weapon was already put away; too fast for Captain Todd to see. “Maybe you will understand how futile it is to fight them.”

         “What are you? No human can move that fast. You’re a vampire aren’t you; that’s what you were hinting at before. You’re here to lead us all to our doom!” The Sergeants eyes were wide with terror.

         “I am no creature of death, though that is what hunts these mountains. I am their opposite; I am a creature of the living. I am their greater, but they do not know believe it.”

         “So if you aren’t a vampire then you’re what; A werewolf?” Captain Todd asked this with no sarcasm, having just seen this man move he knew he was not mortal.

         “You could say that yes. Though that is not what we call ourselves.” He had a smirk on his face. “I can tell you are both scared. That is good, you should be terrified. Your worst nightmares just became true you are facing an enemy who has beaten death and thrives on taking lives.”

         “How can we trust you? You just held a blade to my neck. Why should I listen to anything you say?”

         “Well I didn’t kill you did I?” he turned towards Captain Todd. “You need to get all your people out of here now. Load up and leave before they attack again.”

         “They have never attacked us twice in the same day before.” Sergeant Defuss was still pale but getting some color back in his cheeks. “We can wait until tonight we have the time there is no need to rush.”

         “There usually wouldn’t be but there leader is getting angry with the lack of progress. He wants you crushed when you least expect it and an attack in the afternoon would do just that.”

         “There is absolutely no way I believe you can tell that, I don’t even think you are what you say you are. You are faster than any human I have ever heard of I’ll give you that. But we can’t go off the word of a stranger who just came here ten minutes ago.”

         Captain Todd almost believed what Sergeant Defuss was saying. Almost, but the look on the man’s face was all the convincing he needed that he wasn’t lying.

         “You should start preparing to defend your men Captain, I miss guessed their speed, and they will be here very soon.”

He said this with such confidence that Aaron Todd felt a tingle run up his spine, he was in the presence of something he couldn’t comprehend and that person just told him his doom.